Title:  Memory and Time (1/?)

Author:  Emma

Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, 10^th Doctor, Torchwood Three, others

Rating: Starts PG, but hey, it’s got Jack and Ianto in it!

Disclaimer: Oh, please. If I owned them, would I let some of those idiots write the scripts? And if I were making any money off them, would I be where they could find me?

Spoilers: None. This takes place in my Homecoming AU, twelve years after Invincible Summer

Summary: Something is trying to mess with Jack’s time line…

Author’s Note: This is the first fic I’ve ever written where I can’t plot out the number of chapters in advance. It might fit into my usual frame, it might not. Sorry.

            The year she turned ten, Toshiko Gwendolyn Cooper-Williams got a very special gift from her uncle Jack: a trip to the Horsehead Nebula to see stars being born. They traveled in a wonderful machine called a TARDIS belonging to Uncle Jack’s friend, the Doctor. The sheer, utter awesomeness of standing in the TARDIS observation deck, watching huge disks of burning gas spinning themselves into suns while uncle Jack and the Doctor told her stories about their travels together – in his younger days uncle Jack had been one of the Doctor’s Companions – was almost eclipsed by the shocking joy of finding the TARDIS inside her head.

            It was a person, not a machine, and it told her other stories, about a brave man who spent multiple lives saving the Universe. It showed her other companions besides Uncle Jack: Aunt Martha, and Rose Tyler (Toshi had seen a picture on her on Uncle Jack’s desk), and a red-headed lady called Donna Noble, and a young girl called Ace, and a boy called Adric. Even her friend Sarah Elizabeth’s grandmother, Mrs. Smith, had been a Companion. And TARDIS showed her how all the Companions loved the Doctor but never stayed and how the Doctor grew increasingly more lonely with each passing year. And Toshi looked at the tall, lanky man with the manic gestures and the sweet smile, and fell in love.

            TARDIS did another thing: it showed her the Vortex. Toshi never told anyone about that. TARDIS pointed out that, considering his history with people who could see and touch the Vortex, Uncle Jack was likely to freak out and go all overprotective on her and it would be a cold day in Hell before she saw the Doctor or TARDIS again. Toshi might be young, but she had never been foolish. Now that she had seen her future, she wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardise it.

            Once her brother Yan let the cat out of the bag, she did admit she wanted to be a Companion. Most everyone thought it was cute, although uncle Ianto was overheard explaining to uncle Jack and her mother, in his most reasonable tone of voice, that children often daydreamed of adventure as they grew up and they should have fits about it when it actually happened. The only one who took her seriously was Aunt Martha, who looked into her eyes for a long time, then kissed her forehead and whispered I think you will be very good for him.

            Armed with her blessing, Toshi set herself to learning everything she could to become a proper Companion. By the time she was nineteen she was a competent computer jockey, even by Torchwood standards (uncle John), fluent in five languages, including Intergalactic Trade Patois and Roxicoricofallapatorian (uncle Jack and aunt Tish), a fair-to-middling medic for a number of species (aunt Martha and uncle Tom), a good shot (uncle Jack), and a skilled dirty-trick brawler (uncle Andy). She could even make coffee and tea to uncle Ianto’s exacting standards.

            The next time she saw the Doctor was at Pryce and Addie’s engagement party. She managed to get him alone and made her pitch.

            He laughed at her. Coldly and with surgical precision, he enumerated her failings. Then, as if to rub salt in her wounds, he very publicly invited her friend Sara Elizabeth Smith to travel with him.

            That night, Toshi cried herself to sleep. In the morning, she waited until her mother had left for work – her Mum was capable of hunting the Doctor down like a Weevil if she thought he had hurt one of her children – and poured her heart out to her father. Rhys simply hugged her.

            “Got your heart broken, did you, cariad? I know you don’t want to hear this now, but it happens to everyone. Even your uncle Captain Hero has had his share of heartache. Much of it from the same source, come to think of it.”

            “What am I going to do, Tad?”

            “Live. Move on. Put all those things you learned to use. I hear your aunt Tish is looking for an intern in the artifacts department of the labs.”

            “Uncle Jack would never hire me.”

            “Oh, I don’t know. If I were you I’d make noises about UNIT’s new NATO liaison program. With all your skills, you’d be a natural.”

            Two weeks later, she reported to Torchwood’s research labs in London. She worked hard and played even harder. Two years later she was sent to Italy to study archeology with Isabella Branciforte. Besides teaching Toshi all about locating alien artifacts using archeological methods, Isabella took her under her wing in all matters not-Torchwood, like fashion and culture. Toshi threw herself wholeheartedly into her new life, and if sometimes late at night, when she was exhausted past her ability to shield, she noticed a beautiful fiery cascade of time-and-space currents beckoning to her, she ignored it.

            At the end of her internship she requested permanent assignment to Torchwood Italy. Uncle Jack told her he would consider it in one condition: that she come home for her twenty-fifth birthday.

            Which was why she was at the parking-garage entrance to the Hub when the TARDIS materialized, door open and cloister bell clanging fit to wake the dead, to make an ungraceful landing in an empty space between one of the SUVs and uncle John’s 1956 Austin Healy.

            Toshi didn’t even wait for the blue box to stop rocking before she ran in, weapon drawn (one of the benefits of hitching a ride on an UNIT transport was avoiding all those pesky metal detectors). The control room reeked of decaying vegetation, but there wasn’t as much as a leaf in sight. In fact, everything seemed exactly as she had seen it fourteen years before.

            Except for the Doctor.

            He lay crumpled against one of the room’s supporting ribs. His clothes were shredded and singed. Blood dripped from his torso and pooled beneath his legs. Toshi pressed her fingers beneath his ear; there as a pulse, weak but steady. She left him and moved over to the console. During what she had taken to calling her “obsession time,” she had learned everything she could about TARDIS, including basic maintenance and security procedures. Everything seemed to be in order, but she initiated a deep scan, just in case.

            “Toshiko?”

            The weak call had her rushing back to him. “Doctor, what happened?”

            He grabbed at her arm. “Find Jack.  Make him… do you know him? Do you know who Jack is?”

            “What? Of course I do. Doctor, are you…” She heard running outside. “Uncle Jack! In here!”

            He rushed in, followed by Jonas McGee, Torchwood Three’s gadget man. One look and he was barking orders into his comm. “Lizzie, get down here. The Doc is hurt. Gwen, send out a general alert. If something is chasing the Doc I want it located and tracked before it hits the Oort cloud. John, same for the Rift.”

            His eyes unfocused briefly, and Toshi was not surprised to see uncle Ianto materializing by one of the supports. He moved directly to the console and ran his hands over the main panel.

            “She’s undamaged, Jack, but she’s really upset about something. Won’t tell me what yet. Wants to see everyone in the conference room.” They traded a long look. “ I’ll go ahead and set it up.”

            He faded out. Toshi heard Jonas give a long sigh. She smiled at him.

            “Hard to get used to?”

            He shook his head. “Try impossible. Every time I see it I get goose bumps.”

            Lizzie Smith –  Sarah Elizabeth Smith, Torchwood Three’s medical officer – entered the TARDIS at her usual gallop. Toshi stood and moved aside to allow her to work on the Doctor.

            “Princess?”

            Impulsively she threw her arms around the captain. “I missed you. All of you.”

            “We did too, princess.” He gave her a hard hug then disengaged gently. “Report, agent Cooper-Williams.”

            “Yes, sir. I was at the garage entrance when TARDIS materialized. The door was open and I could hear the cloister bell. I ran in, gun drawn. I found the Doctor. I checked his pulse. It was weak but steady. I initiated TARDIS security scans. At that point the Doctor regained consciousness. He recognized me, but seemed disoriented.”

            “How?”

            “He kept asking me if I remembered you.” She shrugged. “Then I heard you running outside. That’s it.”

            “Critique your performance.”

            The crisp, even tone reminded her that he was not only her beloved uncle, but also the head of Torchwood, her ultimate superior, and someone who didn’t suffer fools at all. She took a deep breath and organized her thoughts.

            “I blew it, sir. I should have communicated with the officer on duty immediately, passed on the intel, and awaited instructions. I was lured into a false sense of security by my perceived familiarity with the TARDIS.” She met his eyes squarely. “It won’t happen again.”

            “See that it doesn’t.” He turned away. “Lizzie?”

            The doctor and McGee were lifting the Time Lord up.  Jack waved Lizzie out of the way and took over on her side.

            “Let’s get him to the infirmary, boss. It’s actually much better than it looks. He’ll be all right, but he’s lost a fair bit of blood. Mostly he needs rest.”

            “Do we know what attacked him?’

            “Specifically? No.  But from the direction, angle, and shape of the wounds I’d say something with five-to-eight inch razor-sharp claws that attacks from above.” She took one look at Jack’s face and swallowed hard. “You know what it is.”

            “I think so. Although what the hell he is doing tangling with them… Toshi?”

            “Yes, sir.”

            “Toshi, Toshi,” the Doctor’s eyes were open and he had what could only be called a goofy smile on his face. “Pretty Toshiko. Stay with me.”

            He sank back into unconsciousness, leaving a scarlet-faced Toshi to face the others. McGee and Lizzie were valiantly struggling to control their laughter. Jack’s reaction was simply a long speculative look.

            “You heard the man, Toshi. You’ve been elected bodyguard. No arguments,” he warned, shutting off the impending stream. “One other thing. Did you smell anything when you first entered the TARDIS?”

            “Rotting flowers. Like when you leave a bouquet in water for too long.”

            “I was afraid of that.’ He looked at the Time Lord hanging limply in his grasp. “You and I are going to have a long talk about this one, old friend. A very long talk.”